


Simplicity's Gone

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: First Meetings, M/M, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23489269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Ezra has been captured by the Imperial Remnant. He isn't exactly happy to be rescued.
Relationships: Ezra Bridger/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 21
Kudos: 152
Collections: Party in the GFFA: Star Wars Flash Exchange 2020





	Simplicity's Gone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JessKo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessKo/gifts).



The first thing to remember was not to panic. Ezra had been stuck in a cell for almost two years before Thrawn had finally let him free. The cell had been two meters by two meters, and it had been dark, and clammy with cold, and he hadn't found any way out no matter how hard he tried, and look, there was that panic worming its way through him again. Ezra closed his eyes. This cell was clean, well-lit, and as he breathed in deeply, he absorbed the sterile smells of the metal and the cleaning agent last used in here. He wasn't stuck back inside his small prison, and if Thrawn still lived, he was half a galaxy or more away.

After a long time, he came back to himself, calmer. He opened his eyes and looked around himself. Hera and Sabine had warned him about the Imperial Remnant still working in this part of the galaxy, warned him so much he'd gone to see what he could for himself. The Empire was gone, their forces shattered, and their remaining resources left in ruins and disrepair, or so his friends told him.

"I guess these guys didn't get the notice," Ezra said to himself, examining the well-maintained walls and heavy door.

He hadn't been wearing his lightsaber when they'd captured him. Good news: that meant they hadn't taken it. Bad news: if he'd been armed with more than a blaster, they might not have captured him at all. The blaster was gone, and they'd taken the knife he kept in his left boot as well. His guards might be persuaded with the Force, and they might be distracted while he used the Force to work the lock, but Ezra decided to give himself time to work out what his plan was after that step. He was on a ship. An escape pod might be his way out of here, but escape pods didn't have lightspeed. Escaping only to be recaptured would be a waste of his energy.

If he could make it to a console and download information, his private mission might still turn out to be useful. He worried a little at the jump of his pulse at the thought of being useful. He'd been welcomed home with relieved hugs all around by his family, but to all observation, they, the Rebellion, and the rest of galaxy had moved on just fine without him. He was glad, he knew he was glad, because the alternative was too terrible to consider. He knew they'd missed him, knew they loved him, and he also had come to understand they didn't need him. He served no vital purpose in their lives, except as someone they all cared about even as they went back to their own duties and responsibilities.

But if he gathered data on the Imperial Remnant, that would be useful. He'd be needed. That thought had driven him into seeking the Imps out, and it gave him purpose now.

So, plan. Try to mind trick the guards, then try to open the lock, then try to get some intel, then worry about stealing a ship to escape in. Ezra rubbed his hands together and stepped up to the door.

Which opened.

Startled, Ezra stepped back on one foot, changing his plan. He could use the Force on whichever of his jailers came into the cell, and work outward from there. He readied himself.

A stormtrooper stepped inside. "Ezra Bridger?"

Now or never. Ezra reached out with the Force, and said carefully, "You want to hand me your blaster and walk me out of here."

The stormtrooper tilted his head. "Is that what that feels like?" He pulled off his helmet. The face underneath was vaguely familiar: a human male with dark blond hair. He couldn't place where he'd seen him before. His other senses tickled him in the back of his mind. The man was powerful in the Force.

"Do I know you?"

"We haven't met. I'm Luke. Come on, let's get you out of here."

The name clicked. "Luke Skywalker? Hera told me about you. You're a Jedi, too." They hadn't crossed paths yet, always one thing or another in the way. Ezra had heard all the stories, though. Luke had destroyed the first Death Star with one shot, and he'd fought the Emperor and Vader both, casting them down as old Wedge Antilles and Lando Calrissian of all people had taken out the second Death Star. Luke Skywalker was a legend, and maybe that's why Ezra hadn't made time to meet him. How could he compare to someone who had defeated the Empire almost single-handed? Ezra couldn't even complete a recon mission without getting captured.

"General Syndulla asked me to come in after you. Are you hurt? We have to get out of here now."

"I'm fine. I'd be better with a weapon."

"This will be easier if you pretend to be my prisoner." He gestured weakly with the blaster as he stuck the helmet back on. "I don't have binders handy. Can you raise your arms?"

Ezra reached up. "You think they're going to buy this?"

"They always do."

Ezra let Luke guide him out of the cell block right past the other stormtroopers. "Prisoner transfer," Luke told them. "You don't need to see the scandocs."

"I don't need see the scandocs," the commander agreed. Ezra kept a serious, concerned expression on his face rather than the amusement that wanted to come out. As they walked, the amusement wilted. He was being rescued, which was good. Rescue had been a long time coming when he'd been in his last cell.

He could be useful next time.

They were alone in a corridor. Ezra relaxed his arms. "We should try to take some intel out of here with us. Make the trip worth it."

"This is a rescue mission. Getting you out of here alive means it was worth it."

"I didn't really need rescued."

"You really did," said Luke, poking at him with the muzzle of the blaster almost playfully.

"I could have gotten out of there myself. I was going to pick the lock with the Force and overpower the guards. I had a plan."

Luke snorted, which sounded weird through the mask. "I could take back to your cell if that's what you want." Ezra shivered. Luke dropped the blaster. "Just kidding," he said hastily. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Ezra said, forcing himself back to calm. The last thing he wanted to do was to panic in front of the only other Jedi around. Bad enough he had to get rescued by him.

"We'll be out of here soon enough," Luke said. They heard boots in an adjacent corridor. He gestured with the blaster and Ezra raised his hands again.

Three stormtroopers turned the corner, ignoring them. The Commander they were escorting did not.

"Stop right there," he said in a nasally voice Ezra recalled from when he'd been captured. "Where are you taking the prisoner?"

Luke said, "Transfer to the brig on Deck Five."

"I didn't order a transfer." He peered suspiciously at Ezra, who kept his hands raised. "Where are his binders? You can't walk a prisoner through the ship without binders."

The other stormtroopers gave the pair of them their full attention now. Luke said, "Sorry, sir. I was ordered to transfer him."

The Commander gestured at his men. "Take charge of the prisoner. You, trooper, report to Administration for discipline."

"Yes, sir," said Luke. He turned his helmeted face to Ezra. Ezra stared back, not sure what the plan was. Luke sighed and tossed his blaster into the air. It took Ezra a second to realize what had happened. He reached out with the Force and grabbed it, stunning two of the guards while Luke threw the third guard against the wall with the Force then lit his lightsaber. (Where had he been hiding that? Ezra hadn't seen it on him.)

"A Jedi stormtrooper?!" said the Commander with the same kind of outrage he would give finding a sandslug in his salad.

Ezra sighed and threw him into the wall. He collapsed to the ground unconscious next to the 'troopers. "Time to go."

"Why didn't you follow the plan?" Luke asked him as they hurried.

"What plan?"

"I told you telepathically to fake a leg cramp. I was going to shoot them when you ducked."

"You told me what?"

Luke pulled off his helmet. The disguise wasn't helping now anyway. "I was thinking at you. Didn't you hear me?"

"No?" They paused at an intersection, waiting to see if anyone was pursuing them, then raced down another corridor. "You can talk to people with your mind?"

"The ones who can hear me. I thought you could. Leia can."

Two unlucky stormtroopers turned a corner in front of them. Ezra stunned them both. "Maybe because she's your sister?"

"Maybe. I don't know how most of this works. I only had a short time with Obi-Wan and Master Yoda. Everyone said you were mostly trained. I was hoping you'd know." There was a slight whine of frustration in his voice which Ezra recognized a little too well. Yeah, he'd learned a lot from Kanan, but mainly what he'd learned was how little either of them really knew. Kanan had been a kid himself when his Jedi education ended. Whatever wisdom Yoda and Obi-Wan had handed down to Luke was all he would know, too.

They hesitated outside the hangar where Luke's ship waited. They had to get across the open area and get aboard the ship, but curiosity got the better of Ezra. "Why'd you take this mission?"

"To rescue you," Luke said. "We've been over this."

"Anybody could have come."

"General Syndulla asked me."

Ezra knew Hera better than that. They were all still on edge and overprotective of one another after Ezra's recent return. She would have come herself, or had one of the family come for him. Sabine or Kallus could have slipped in easily with the same ruse. "You volunteered."

Luke gave him a nervous half-shrug. A Jedi's body language should always speak calm certainty, or so Ezra had been told when he'd been prone to slouching. Luke's was speaking an awkward shyness at odds with the out-sized reputation Ezra had heard about. "I was in the sector. I've been wanting to meet you. Let's get on the ship."

"Prisoner con?"

Luke put his helmet back on and took the blaster back from Ezra. "Prisoner con."

They marched bold as day out into the hangar, Ezra with his arms raised, Luke keeping his blaster pointed at him. Twenty meters from the ship, the alarm sounded. Over the speakers, a voice announced: "Prison breach! Jedi prisoners have escaped! Terminate on sight!"

"I wasn't a prisoner," Luke said, annoyed, as they dropped the ruse and ran for it. Emerald green blaster bolts poured in their direction. Luke lit his saber, blocking them. Ezra didn't have time to focus his powers to push the energy away, and instead focused on running as fast as he could.

They reached the shuttle, another stolen Lambda-class from who knew where, and boarded. Small blasts rocked the ship as Luke jumped into the pilot's chair and smacked all the switches for takeoff. Ezra manned the weapons, firing back at the stormtroopers with the ship's lasers. "Anytime would be good," he said, then jerked in his chair as Luke pulled them out of the hangar with a sudden zoom.

When they were safely in hyperspace, Luke opened a channel to the _Ghost_ for him. "On my way home," Ezra said, and sent the message in a packet. With the communications relays in the current state of disrepair, they might make it back before the message did.

Ezra reached inside, past his annoyance and his murky fears. "Thanks for coming to rescue me. Even though we didn't get anything from it."

"You're welcome." Luke gave him a smile, and it was weirdly bright and cheerful, as though he'd never doubted the success of the mission or the worthiness of the goal.

"You said you've been wanting to meet me. I guess I've been wanting to meet you, too. We're the only ones left now."

"There's Leia and Ahsoka. Ben and Jacen, too," Luke said, but understanding was on his face. Ahsoka had already made her intentions clear, and even though the others had the ability, they had no training, and wouldn't except what Ezra and Luke taught them when the time came. The entire Jedi order consisted of the two of them, and they'd only met half an hour ago. The thought was overwhelming in a way it hadn't been when he and Kanan had been the only two Jedi around, but as Ezra thought about it, Kanan had been the one who'd felt the weight of the past on his own shoulders alone. Now it was Ezra's turn to carry that. At least he had a new friend to help shoulder the load.

"You said you could talk to people with your mind."

"I can talk to Leia." He looked as though he wanted to say something else, but stopped. "Do you want me to show you?"

Did he? Sharing thoughts with someone sounded weird, and invasive, and intimate in a way Ezra had never been with anyone else. He'd spent a lot of his time over the last several years hiding himself away, even wary of his own family now that he was home. But maybe it was time to set that aside, along with his notions about what was useful and what wasn't. Maybe his purpose now wasn't to keep fighting the remnants of the Empire, but to finish learning, and to pass that knowledge on.

Ezra nodded. He and Luke turned their chairs to face each other. Luke closed his eyes and Ezra did the same. After a moment, here in the quiet of the shuttle, Ezra felt a peculiar tickle in his mind, not unlike the feeling he'd gotten when he'd first encountered Luke. Almost like a whisper, he felt the words, "Can you hear me?" form inside his mind.

With some effort, he thought back, "Hi." It was weird, very weird, but nice too.

Ezra had the sudden strange image of himself standing in front of his own eyes, but a more idealized version of himself, someone brave and clever and gifted with the Force, almost a legend. "I heard so much about you," Luke thought. "All these stories about how you fought the Empire and saved Lothal. I really wanted to meet you."

Ezra understood spending his life longing for more, longing for someone else to understand him. He'd heard the stories about the other Jedi from Kanan, but he'd known they were all gone even then. He hadn't held onto any hope that one was out there, just like him, waiting to meet, and understand, and touch minds in a strangely intimate dance. He wondered how his life would have been different if he had.

"Hi," Ezra thought again, and this time it was underlaid with that understanding, a greeting to someone who knew what it was to be a Jedi, and carry these same doubts, some hero from all the stories who was also just some guy exactly like him.

"Hi," Luke thought back, and his smile glowed inside Ezra's mind.


End file.
